A blog about raising kids on the spectrum, working with kids on the spectrum, friends on the spectrum. And lots more.

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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

No Chilling with Chicks.

Meet Julia and Nova, our Pekin bantams.

If you've followed this blog for a while you probably have one of two thoughts right now. Either, Harri must have come a long way in the last year for her to consider getting those nice little chickens, or, what the hell is she thinking getting those poor, nice little chickens? Run chickens, run!

Anyhoo, let me offer my defence up front. In the days BH (Before Harri) we lived on a property large enough for some chooks. Having poultry is great if like me you enjoy eggs and being able to put every bit of food waste to good use. Since moving to a block of less than 400 sqm however we'd let go of our smug greenie ideals and traded them in for a more consumptive-waste kind of lifestyle. Yet I missed my free eggs. So I thought outside the urban block and devised a plan to get chickens back into my life. Enter bantams. Small and friendly and happy to hang in this groovy little chicken house, with lots of opportunity to get out into the garden to forage and do Bantam stuff.

Sounds lovely right? Well... those of you who thought Harri must have come some way since Leila are, I'm afraid to say, wrong. And those who thought "are you crazy lady?" are right. He just can't leave them alone, and chickens that are over handled tend to get stressed, and stressed chooks don't lay. We have no eggs. And I have to supervise Harri whenever he's outside to stop him throwing them into the air to see if they'll fly or hugging them within an inch of their oxygen. So, as in the case of Leila, Julia and Nova are for sale and my daughter once again has to say goodbye to beloved pets. I'm thinking I'll try for goldfish in another couple of years.